‘Cooling’ plant site work begins near Summerfield in Noble County

CALDWELL — Excavation work is reportedly taking place at the site of a proposed “wet” gas cooling plant in eastern Noble County.

And a preliminary legal document to purchase the property has been filed in the county recorder’s office.

Noble County commissioners heard from a project engineer with MarkWest Energy Partners recently, and received schematics of the proposed gas processing complex, fittingly named Seneca, which will be located near Summerfield.

Aaron Heydinger, project engineer with MarkWest, presented Cryogenic Processing Plant drawings to Engineer Mark Eicher and commissioners. The plant will have two phases. There will be low truck traffic associated with the plant after construction.

Eicher recently advised Beaver Excavating of Canton was moving earth.

MarkWest last year announced plans to build two processing plants in Ohio to process the liquids rich gas coming from the Utica Shale development. A plant is being constructed in Cadiz in Harrison County.

According to the Noble County Recorder’s Office, a Memorandum of Option between Reserve Coal Properties Co., Cannonsburg, Pa., and MarkWest Utica EMG LLC, Denver, Colo., was filed Nov. 13, 2012, regarding the property in Marion Township.

Deadline for acting on that option, regarding 418 acres owned by Reserve Coal Properties, is Jan. 28, said Noble County Recorder Juanita Matheney.

MarkWest Utica EMG and Colorado-based Antero Resources in November joined forces for the Noble County project.

According to reports, MarkWest Utica will operate an interim refrigeration natural gas processing plant at the Seneca processing complex. It will be capable of handling up to 45 million cubic feet per day. It is slated to be completed in the second quarter of 2013.

That will be followed by the new Seneca I, a cryogenic gas processing facility capable of handling 200 million cubic feet per day. That is expected to be in operation by the third quarter 2013.

The agreement also calls for Seneca II, a 200 million-cubic-feet-per-day cryogenic facility that could open in late 2013.

Antero has leased about 60,000 acres in Ohio. It is running one drilling rig and plans to add a second rig next year. It has permits for five wells in Noble and Monroe counties.

Antero is reportedly building the needed pipeline in Noble County.

Before the completion of the fractionation complex in Harrison County and associated pipelines, Antero’s natural gas liquids processed in Noble County may be transported to either the company’s Houston, Pa., fractionation and marketing complex (the largest facility of its kind in the Marcellus shale) or its Siloam fractionator in South Shore, Ky., sources report.